On Air With Ryan Seacrest: President Obama On Donald Trump & Hillary Clinton’s First Debate, Biggest Concerns For Future & CollegeLingo

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton went head to head at Long Island’s Hofstra University for the first presidential debate of the 2016 general election Monday night. Moderated by NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt, Trump and Clinton presented two conflicting visions for the country as they laid out their blueprint for the economy, crime and policing, foreign policy, and argued about each other’s temperament, “birtherism,” and more.

Following the heated debate, President Barack Obama called On Air with Ryan Seacrest Tuesday morning (National Voter Registration Day) to weigh in on Trump and Clinton’s exchange, admit his biggest concerns for the future, and to remind listeners to register to vote before the general election deadline on October 24. “We’ve got a website, IWillVote.com, and you can text forward to 47246. Get information about the place in your state where you can vote online, or where your precinct is. A lot of states now you can vote by mail.”

No…I have been so busy with work and tutoring that I really haven’t had time to listen…things are changing here, though WAY to slowly for me….so many people moving here from CA and OR….probably because its cheaper here ( they don’t realize you get what you pay for)…. We shall see how all this shakes out come November…if this made any difference at all.

No matter how many rationalisations are put out there – living through something like i’ve been describing where 90% of the polling was overturned and all the conventional wisdom was thrown out the window – thats a pretty damn scary thing.

When it comes down to it and you realise your friends and neighbours are willing to sacrifice your countries economic future on a stark yes/no – and they choose to completely tank your economy because they don’t like foreigners, it’s a big fucking deal.
Trump wants to tank your economy and get elected on the basis people dont like foreigners. I am living through it now and will be living through the consequences of it for decades. Families will be torn apart by what has happened here – good friends may have to leave, people who have made lives here in good faith and with every best will in the world to make the UK a better place.

So, I will beg indulgence that I don’t want to see that happen anywhere else. One of our tabloids ran a headline just yesterday about how long it would take to deport all EU migrants – not illegal immigrants, genuine EU citizens. It gets very nasty very fast.

Europeans are being beaten up on the streets – hate crimes are going through the roof, people are openly feeling legitimised in their hatred and bigotry. Once the lid comes off it’s really fucking bad.

Trump doesn’t even have to win to have that effect on discourse or actions, the open overt racsim is bubbling again at his rallies and on the fringes it’s even worse.

The UK is looking at a future where an iron curtain comes down and we send people back home, a lot of people back home – we are looking at reducing the number of refugees and migrants from all corners of the globe. Because it couldn’t happen here.

Friends I have known most of my life may be forced to leave, but it could never happen here. It did and it hurts like hell and its is incredibly raw and incredibly personal. I’m sorry if your offended.

Rikyrah, this statement from Howard Beale should tell us that we can’t afford to be complacent for one second until the last vote is recorded on November 8. We have to GOTV like mad to ensure that the sane voters outnumber the rash and reckless. Those who support Trump haven’t the smallest idea of what the consequences will be if he is elected and many don’t care as long as someone else suffers. In their minds, the consequences never fall on themselves.

I’ve been fretting for a long time. Sadly, I really don’t think that our beloved Chips is ever coming back…I would love for Nerdy to keep our home going after the election, but that’s a lot to ask. So grateful and appreciative of Nerdy working so hard to have TOD current and here for all of us. If this goes away, I may need an intervention. Truly.

I’m hoping Nerdy/Chips will continue with us so we can all stay in tact and in touch. That would be the best outcome.

But just in case they aren’t able to continue to put in the time or energy, I’ve reserved a blog site that I’m calling potusflotus44. I did this a few months ago thinking it would be a place for me to follow our beloved POTUS and FLOTUS after they leave the WH and also continue to post significant memories from these amazing 8 years. So in the off chance we need a place, perhaps that can serve. I’ve done no work on it at all and there may be others that can fill the void. But I just want to add my voice to keeping our community together.

I will try to remember your site as I will be very sad when the Obamas leave the WH. I have not been able to even think about losing all of us too as I live alone in a sea of rural haters and you are my rescue boat.

Thanks, Meta! That would be lovely. Chips and Nerdy have given TOD their hearts and souls the past 8 years which is a LOT to ask when there are lives to live and work to do other than TOD. I hope we can stay together one way or the other!

As the “Bridgegate” scandal started to unfold, it wasn’t long before the obvious question emerged: what did New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) know and when did he know it? Of particular interest was a photograph showing Christie alongside two of his top aides, David Wildstein and Bill Baroni, at an event on the morning of Sept. 11, 2013.

The timing and the personnel matter: Wildstein and Baroni were integrally involved in hatching the scheme to cripple Fort Lee, New Jersey, and their plan was underway when they saw Christie that morning. Did the governor’s aides let Christie know what they were up to at the time? This morning, Wildstein testified under oath that they brought the governor up to speed. NJ.com reported today:

“Mr. Baroni said, ‘Governor I have to talk to you about something,’” Wildstein recalled.

“(He said) there’s a tremendous amount of traffic in Fort Lee … and you’ll be pleased to know Mayor (Mark) Sokolich is very frustrated,” Wildstein said.

Wildstein said that he and Baroni boasted to the governor about not returning Soklolich’s repeated phone calls. Christie responded that he wasn’t surprised Fort Lee’s mayor “wouldn’t be getting his phone calls returned,” Wildstein said.

As Wildstein put it, the three of them joked about the tactics on the third day of the deliberate scheme.

* Lost in all the chatter about the debate, David Fahrenthold dropped yet another bombshell about the Trump Foundation.

Donald Trump’s charitable foundation has received approximately $2.3 million from companies that owed money to Trump or one of his businesses but were instructed to pay Trump’s tax-exempt foundation instead, according to people familiar with the transactions.

In cases where he diverted his own income to his foundation, tax experts said, Trump would still likely be required to pay taxes on the income. Trump has refused to release his personal tax returns. His campaign said he paid income tax on one of the donations, but did not respond to questions about the others.

Every goddamned day in this country, we are not safe. We are not protected. We are not looked at as human beings.

The cops are hunting us and killing us for sport every goddamned day. White people do not face this. White people have never and will never experience this horror. They don’t treat you like your life is worthless.

This is bone chillingly terrifying.

Imagine calling 911 so your epileptic brother doesn't die from a seizure only to have him killed by the police that show up #AlfredOlango

This is the top news this morning on both @CBSradionews and MSN (Windows 10 internet opens with a page that provides a gallery of news [and ads] for that moment).

It’s shocking to me, and breaks my heart, because this is where I was raised, and spent all my life before leaving for UCLA. Very familiar with the area and makes me heartsick to see what happened yesterday.

I’m not a woman but I do know a few, and they seem to have a common experience with being interrupted by men, particularly in business settings, that they have no reticence about sharing with me. So, watching Trump talk over Clinton repeatedly last night probably triggered a lot of people and made them vastly less inclined to like him

If that wasn’t bad enough, Trump is still insulting a former Miss Universe, accusing her on Fox & Friends this morning of gaining fifty pounds and being the worst winner in the history of the pageant. Considering that Machado went on to have a very successful career in soap operas and appeared in Playboy ten years after she supposedly “plumped up,” I have a hard time believing Trump is even telling the truth about the extent of her weight gain (not that being truthful would help in this case).

Reading these and the related tweets above, it suddenly dawned on me that it’s past time the boss/captain/leader of these police precincts is (also) held accountable in these murders. It’s time those who ‘lead’ are held responsible for continually sending untrained, incompetent, fearful cops out to ‘serve and protect’. If a cop is too afraid of his/her life to competently assess a situation before using his/her weapon, s/he should not be dispatched. It seems like despite the repeated murders, police chiefs are not reassessing training or orders to their subordinates. Instances of questionable violent police response do not seem to be decreasing! In the words of a black guy I know,

Yes, vc, this is scary beyond belief, yet, we wake up to this reality, every. day.

And then our minds go back to when the police officers caught up with the known terrorist, became involved in an actual shoot-out with him and he was wounded, treated at the scene and is in a hospital, receiving medical care and REFUSES to talk to Authorities.

I saw the number ‘217’ in a tweet above, and that’s just in 2016! GxG, if I’m honest I’ll admit I try not to think of it too often as I wait for something concrete to be done, but these repeated and unrelenting cases take away the choice. Given the frequency and the lack of meaningful consequences it’s hard to believe that this is not a deliberate, concerted attack on POC. This is one reason I fear to send offspring to visit in the States (not that my traveling with him there makes any difference, other than my not worrying myself at home).

Infuriating that Americans have allowed this country to become a “no go” zone for visitors from other countries.

There’s so much beauty here that is marred by the ignorance of so many in those areas. So, so wrong and is apparently something that cannot be discussed here. And now the most amoral, greedy idiot in this country have given these stubborn, fearful white nationalists a platform and a megaphone.

Agree that police departments do not do a good job of training their field personnel the sanctity of life. As I mentioned above, I grew up where this latest incident occurred, and so many on that local police force and many employed by the Border Patrol would not be qualified for a job on a competent police force.

This should never have happened, especially in broad daylight (hasn’t rained in CA for months, so weather/darkness NOT a factor) in the middle of a strip mall parking lot.

All officers involved need to be dismissed immediately, and the person who pulled the trigger should be prosecuted.

Towards the end of Monday’s presidential debate, Donald Trump was clearly annoyed by Hillary Clinton’s criticism of his misogyny, but he declared to the audience that he would not say what he wanted to say. “You want to know the truth?” he asked rhetorically, “I was going to say something extremely rough to Hillary, to her family, and I said to myself, ‘I can’t do it. I just can’t do it. It’s inappropriate. It’s not nice.’”

The next morning, Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, appeared on MSNBC and told a national television audience that the Republican was referring to Bill Clinton’s adultery. It was apparently “inappropriate” to bring this up on Monday night, but not on Tuesday morning.

Nevertheless, Team Trump seemed quite excited yesterday to generate chatter about the topic Trump “was going to” bring up during the debate. Politico had this report yesterday:

Hillary Clinton’s decision to stand by her husband and attack former White House intern Monica Lewinsky when news of a sexual relationship between the two broke in 1998 prove that the former secretary of state is “too stupid to be president,” Rudy Giuliani said Monday night.

The former New York City mayor made the remark, captured on video and posted to Twitter by Elite Daily writer Alexandra Svokos, in response to a question about Clinton’s attack on Trump’s past comments about women.
Politico had a separate report this morning on the fact that “threats emanated from Trump Tower on Tuesday that the Republican nominee was preparing to name-check Bill Clinton’s mistresses.”

Some skepticism is probably in order – largely because I find it hard to imagine Democrats getting this lucky.

There is very little doubt even in the Trump supporting camps that Hillary Clinton won the first Presidential debate on policy. But policy was never Trump’s strong suit. He is the candidate of the gut voter. That is where Clinton obliterated Donald Trump: style.

By all accounts, Hillary Clinton prepared for two Trumps to show up on the debate stage: one, Trump’s natural cocky, belligerent, easily agitated self, or two, a makeover Trump that is more subdued in an attempt to appear presidential. I think it’s fair to say, however, that no one has to guess twice about which Trump the Clinton campaign preferred would show.

So when Trump tried to appear calmer and subdued in the first few minutes of the debate, Hillary Clinton did a masterful job of setting all the right traps to bring out Trump’s insolent, childish, asshat self.

And boy did Donald take the bait.

From forcing Trump to respond to daddy’s “small loan” of $14 million to exposing him for stiffing people who did work for him, objectifying and demeaning women and calling The Donald a racist to his face, Clinton was on her game while Trump looked like a floundering, petulant, flustered and thirsty manchild. From inexplicably defending Russia against hacking into the United States and explaining that nearly a billion dollars in debt to foreign banks is “really not that much” money to astoundingly admitting that his lawyers have spotted something so nefarious in his tax returns that they are advising him to keep them secret and bafflingly chest-beating about being a tax cheat, Trump was in a meltdown mood the whole time.

Oh, NW, that portrait of our President reminded me of how he wrote about another portrait, back in 2005, of President Lincoln. You’ll recall it. I imagine that one fine day, another future President will write about our President, in a similar way. There will never be another just like him – or just like Lincoln – but our country’s future was certainly in both of “their eyes,” minds, hearts, and actions.

Yup, a Precedent has been set. Just like the Iraq War, Dems worried about Politics instead of principle Caved. OK, then.
Fact: Saudi Arabia has 15 of 19 Hijackers. Note: This issue never got debated until now. Not coincidental. The Caveat is that Litigants have to prove that Saudi Aabia was involved in the 9/11 attacks. That is Never going to happen.

Final, a quiz with a few challenging questions! Not to brag or anything, but…

100% – Class Scholar!

You deserve a full-ride scholarship because you aced this test! This was definitely one for the books. You loved Political Science and History. The past events and the inner workings in the political arena have always piqued your interest. You make sure to be always on the know and understand the importance of voting in this coming election. Well done!

Humpffff, Alycee! I like quizzes, but if you think I’m going to take this after this piece of bragging by you,….well! /nose in the air/
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{Of course, even without looking I know from the ‘Class scholar’ commentary that I’d be brilliant to scrape 51%. Safer (for my self-esteem) not to try.} 😀

If you believe men and whites have “too little” influence in American society, it’s a key indicator of support for Donald Trump, according to new polling data released Wednesday.

In fact, it’s almost as good a predictor of Trump support as disapproval of President Barack Obama, the ABC News/Washington Post survey found. The data shows how Trump supporters and Hillary Clinton supporters view race and gender in the U.S.

Thinking men and whites have too little influence in American society is a key predictor of Trump support, according to WaPo/ABC poll

The findings come as Trump has sought to capitalize on Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment, after she said half of Trump’s supporters hold racist, sexist, homophobic and Islamaphobic views.

However, the ABC News/Washington Post data lends some credence to that idea, finding that Trump supporters are more likely than the average American to say women and minorities have “too much” influence in American society.

On National Voter Registration Day, a U.S. District Court in Illinois granted a motion blocking the state’s same-day voter registration program.

The program has been offered by counties with populations greater than 100,000. Shortly after a pilot version of the program proved to be a success during the 2014 election, a bill making it a permanent feature of the state’s election law was signed by outgoing Gov. Pat Quinn (D). More than 110,000 voters registered on election day last March.

But, as ThinkProgress has previously reported, members of the Illinois Republican Party sued a couple months ago to block the program. They argue it gives unfair advantage to Democratic candidates who generally do well in high-population counties.

In a ruling issued Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Der-Teghiayan granted the Republicans’ motion for a preliminary injunction shutting down the program for now.
“The application of this legislation favors the urban citizen and dilutes the vote of the rural citizen,” Der-Teghiayan writes. “The Supreme Court has made it clear that legislation cannot ‘restrict the political participation of some in order to enhance the relative influence of others.’”
In a statement sent to ThinkProgress, Common Cause Illinois’ Lead Organizer Trevor Gervais expressed disappointment about today’s ruling.
“To suspend Election Day Registration and suppress the vote less than two weeks before the voter registration deadline will hurt communities across Illinois who were counting on being able to register and vote on November 8,” he said. “The court’s decision to side with a conservative group with ties to ALEC and the Koch brothers, combined with Governor Rauner’s recent veto of Automatic Voter Registration, signals a step backwards for voting rights in Illinois and continues a nationwide trend of coordinated and well-funded voter suppression efforts.”

Gervais told ThinkProgress he expects Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan (D) to appeal the decision. He said he expects the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the injunction in time to restore the program ahead of election day on November 8.

Dear TOD family,
Hello! I have been away for along while. My family has had a lot of changes and we moved cross country. It has been a couple of years of big change, stress and getting used to the newness of a new home/school/work. These last few weeks as this campaign is getting closer to the end I have found myself checking in here for more news, commentary, photos. So happy to see you all or so many of you still here! Still so proud of PBO and can’t even comprehend not having him in the office of President. Just wanted to say “hello” and to say thank you for this community!